Kanye West won’t be able to legally make any money from selling White Lives Matter T-shirts after
the trademark was bought by two Black activists.
Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward, activists and radio hosts of Civic Cipher, revealed they had bought
the trademark rights in a recent interview with radio station KRRL-FM, to prevent anyone from
profiting from the controversial slogan.
West, now known as Ye, had worn a shirt with ‘White Lives Matter’ emblazoned on the back at a
Paris Fashion Week show.
Ja revealed that West won’t be able to market the T-shirts without a lawsuit, explaining: ‘We are the holder of the federal trademark for White Lives Matter.
‘If you want to sell that shirt, you have to come knock on my door, or you have to face Morris, my lawyer.’
West had faced backlash from fans for wearing the T-shirt, before being locked out of his Instagram and Twitter accounts after alleged anti-Semitic remarks.
His comments had also sparked several brands including Balenciaga and Adidas to cut ties with him, costing him his billionaire status.
Ja and Ward revealed the trademark had originally been registered by one of their listeners, who transferred it to them.
Ja told Capital B: ‘This person who first procured it didn’t really love owning it, because the purpose was not necessarily to get rich off of it; the purpose was to make sure that other people didn’t get rich off of that pain.’
The pair revealed that they will enforce the rights they have to the trademark to ensure that any money made from the use of the phrase will go towards benefiting Black communities.
Ja added: ‘We know that phrases like White Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, and Blue Lives Matter continue to cause harm and to dilute the narrative that was intended to be established by Black Lives Matter.
‘Those phrases are all piggybacking off of Black people’s creativity and efforts, so we’re all for helping to use this as a measure to allow Black people to retain a little bit of ownership.’
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